Daybook Entry: Thoughts on an Icy Morning

Outside my window... It's an icy world!

We've had a mild winter.  No snow to speak of and lots of warm days.  When I woke this morning to an icy world, I was surprised and grateful that I didn't have to go out today.  Well, other than the half a dozen trips with the dogs, but even they didn't want to hang around too long in this freezing rain.

I am wearing... khakis, blue button up shirt and purple sweater.   And my SmartDog slippers.  I love my slippers!

I am listening to...freezing rain and David Nevue on the piano.

I am thankful for... a warm, dry house,  Echinacea (I'm eating it like candy, trying to keep this cold from getting worse ),

a daughter who gave loving service to me all week and I'm especially thankful that  I made it through an incredibly busy
weekend...and it's over!  

Around the house... Lots to be done around here.  Gearing up for a big event  last week meant the basics were barely covered. 

Time to start cooking some better meals, clean off the dining room table (it's full of primary stuff), and my desk! (the piles just 

keep growing taller and taller).  I'm going to be cleaning the fruit out of the freezer and making jam in the next few days.

I am loving... my new bracelets from my valentine.

I'm not a fan of... cleaning up puppy messes.  Please, oh please, let's get this "potty in the woods" thing down pat,  FAST!

I am hoping.... for change.  Positive change.  More joy and happiness for people I love.

I am reading.... Freedom Shift by Oliver DeMille.   I'm taking an online class on Current Events, Trends and the Cycles of 

History.  It's very fascinating and I'm way behind on the reading assignments, but that's what I love about online classes, 

you can work at your own pace.  This book is one I think I will want to reread.  This author has some great ideas on how to 

reclaim America's greatness.  I'm reading Learning the Vocabulary of God by Frank Laubach whenever I have a few 

moments to just pick up the book and read a section.  It's written in journal style, in the year 1936, and chronicles his

journey in trying to give every minute of his year to God.  Very inspiring!   I'm reading Prayer by Richard Foster, along 

with the Bloom book club on the InCourage website and am finding it enjoyable.  It helps me to think about my own experiences

with prayer and how I would like to improve in that area.  Katarina by Katharine Winter is sitting on the treadmill, half read.  

I've got to get back on the treadmill...    Seven Sacred Pauses by Macrina Wiederkehr has been my go to book for the past

three weeks.  It's the most beautiful book I've read on the discipline of praying the hours.  I love her thoughts on pausing through
out the day to live mindfully and ready to embrace the gifts of the moment.  There is hardly a sentence in the book I haven't
underlined.   Maybe more on this in another post.

I am creating... space for possibilities.  

I am pondering...  A couple of quotes from  Saturday's training meeting.  " Telling is not teaching and told is not taught."

" Don't be a mile wide and an inch deep teacher"  ( or learner.)   I'm guilty of this!  Also this quote by Joseph Fielding McConkie,

"We read scriptures too fast."

I am learning...  how very little I know.  The Great Books Discussion group humbles me every single time.  

From the kitchen... I've been making some sweet breads to celebrate the sweetness of the Sabbath.  Although we haven't been

doing a very good job of waiting to eat them on the sabbath...   Bake on Friday and hide away until Sunday is my plan, but this

only works if I'm the only one in the house when they're baking.   Cranberry Orange Bread with Apricots has been the favorite

so far!   Soups are a staple,  we're having Beef and Barley tonight.  I'm beginning to think about spring foods and checking on 

my asparagus every so often, just to see if maybe it's getting ready to show it's head.  It won't be long now!

Living my faith... it's Lenten season and this year I'm focusing on my prayer life and giving up complaining and criticism.

I'm failing miserably at the later.  I find giving up chocolate to be much easier.   You can go here to read my thoughts on keeping

Lent.   It's also the season of ward and branch conferences and I've enjoyed traveling through out the stake to be with the primary

children and leaders.  We're in the middle of spring leadership training and our first meeting last Saturday was a success, thanks 

to wonderful counselors (and a daughter) who gave 100% to make the day great.   We will travel to Cherokee in March to meet

with the leaders and teachers from the far western part of the state (and Georgia).  So much work goes into these meetings, but

they are always worth it.  Primary workers are the best!

I'm praying for... Carol and George and Chrissie.  Peace and healing for all.

In the garden... I've cleaned out two raised beds in preparation for planting.  I got the blackberries, blueberries, raspberries

and grapes pruned, along with most of the fruit trees.  Still need to do some work here.  It's time to spray with dormant oil 

and fertilize the trees and berries.  I really want to get another raised bed in place so I can plant strawberries this year.  I 

hope this happens.

Around the farm... I have two chickens.  All the rest have gone to chicken heaven, with help from raccoons and other 

predators.  We caught the raccoon on several occasions, so we are certain of his guilt, but I think there was something

else feasting on my girls.   This is the perils of having chickens and living in the woods, which is habitat to so many other

animals.  I have come to expect to lose one every now and then.  I will probably be getting some new hens this spring, to 
replace those I've lost.   The bees have all died.   Sad, but true.   For now, I'm over beekeeping.  Maybe another time.

A few plans for the rest of the week... nothing on the squares on the calendar.  Well, actually there have been things

on the calendar, but I've been marking them off so I can stay home and try to kick this cold.   Stake Conference is this 

weekend and I'm hoping I feel well enough to attend. 

A picture thought...

How To Dice An Onion

Sometimes when you've been cooking for a long time, you just assume that everyone knows how to do the same things you do.  But then I remember that I didn't always know my way around the kitchen like I do now.  I learned a lot by osmosis, growing up in a family of great cooks, and the rest has come from trial and error and watching all those chefs on the food network.  As many hours as I've logged on that station, I think I should receive some kind of honorary culinary degree.   

The thought popped into my head as I was making dinner one night that it might be fun to do some basic kitchen "how- to" posts.   Since almost every meal I make starts with dicing an onion, this seemed like a good place to start.  I cut up a lot of onions before I learned there was a better way to go about this task.  This is how I do it.

I start by cutting the root end off the onion.

Then I turn the onion around and cut off the other end.

I sit the onion upright and cut right down the middle.

Next, off comes the peeling.

With the knife parallel to the work surface, I slice through the onion 

without cutting all the way to the end.  This helps the onion stay intact as I slice several more times.

I usually make three slices, but if I wanted really small dices, I would slice across the onion four or five times.

Then I turn the onion half around and while holding onto the sides, make slices all the way across, about 1/4 inch apart.

Starting at one end of the onion, slice across to the other end and the onion will fall into perfect dices.

I realize as I'm typing this how complicated it sounds when put into writing, but trust me, it's fast and easy once you get the hang of it.  It takes me less than a minute to dice a large onion. 

Butternut Squash Soup

See that butternut squash and those sweet potatoes.  I grew those babies.  Just thought you should know that before we get started.  It always makes me happy when a recipe begins with food that's been grown in my garden.  

I had intentions of doing a weekly soup post during the winter months, but I can't seem to get around to bringing my ideas to fruition.  I will start with this one though, and maybe others will follow.  Butternut squash is one of my favorite autumn/winter soups.  The squash and sweet potatoes are some of the last vegetables to come out of the garden and they store well in my basement and garage.  This soup finished off the stored squash, which were beginning to show their age, but the sweet potatoes still look as good as the day I dug them.  That's so awesome!

I cut the squash lengthwise and scooped out the seeds, then placed them cut side down with a little water in the pan.  This recipe doesn't call for sweet potatoes, but I had one already peeled in the refrigerator, so decided to put it to use.  In case you're wondering why I had a peeled sweet potato in the fridge, it's because I had cooked sweet potato fries earlier in the week and had peeled two potatoes for that dish.  They were so big, it only took one potato for fries for five people.  Yes, I love those Beauregard potatoes.  I also cut up an apple, in chunks, to cook along with the sweet potatoes, added a little oil and gave them a quick stir.  In a hot oven (400 degrees), I roasted all of this until it was tender.

Once cooled, it's easy to scoop out the flesh of the squash.  Because I wasn't planning to make the soup until the next day, I put everything in a bowl and kept it in the refrigerator over night.  The next day, I chopped a couple of slices of pancetta (you could use regular bacon instead), but pancetta is oh, so good.  I buy it on sale, vacuum seal it and freeze for recipes that really benefit from the extra flavor.

I sauteed the pancetta and set it aside.  In the rendered fat, I sauteed a small chopped onion and a clove of garlic. Then, I added the cooked squash, apple and potato.

To this, I poured in enough chicken broth to barely cover the vegetables, gave it a stir and cooked it for about twenty minutes at a simmer, keeping my eye on it and stirring frequently. 

You can see how it cooked down so nice and thick.  I like this soup silky smooth, so I put it in the blender

and added a little cream to make it really wonderful.  It doesn't take a lot, but you can taste test and then add more if you want.

Once the soup has been blended, I put it back in a pot on the stove and started adding flavors.  This is the fun part, because you have to taste it as you go along.  I grated a little fresh nutmeg, added salt and some brown sugar, along with a little butter.  Stir, taste, add, stir, taste, add ...until you get it just right.

This is what it looked like when I served it.  I drizzled a little maple syrup (the real thing, of course) on top, and sprinkled on some of the cooked pancetta.  Then I invited my neighbor over, and we had lunch.  Soup is always better when shared.

Where's the Beef?

Where's the beef?  Well, in my freezer of course.  This, my friends is what two hundred and ninety-three pounds of cow looks like, all cut, packaged and ready for many tasty meals.

If you're interested in checking out my preparedness goals this year, you can find them under the preparedness tab at the top of the page.  I'm working hard on being as self reliant as possible and I like lists that I can mark through.  It feels so good to mark something off your to-do list, don't you think?

New Year Blessings

First week counting...

                       when I share entries from my Gratitude Journal

1978-the smell of a freshly cut lemon

1979- banging sounds of workmen, bringing improvements to our home

1980- guitar strumming

1981- chocolate chip cookies being pulled from the oven

1982- a crafty girl

1983- clearing away clutter

1984- new furniture to replace the thread bare

1985- Texas grapefruit

1986- perky yellow pansies that greet me when I walk in the door

1987- new carpet

1988- wood stoves cranking out the heat

1989- puppy breath

1990-Winston and Parker

1991- dinner with the missionaries

1992- cherry pie with ice cream

1993- peanut butter on Ritz crackers

1994- rereading a favorite book

1995- partaking of the sacrament

1996- holding hands during church

1997- hearing mom speak in sacrament meeting

1998- crunching on won ton salad

1999- the eulogy of a good man

2000- faithful home teachers

2001- prayers in the driveway

2002- blue potatoes smashed up for dinner

2003- getting to know a new neighbor over bowls of steamy soup

2004- a piano concert with Cindy's family

2005- a new hiking group

2006- waterfalls

2007- organizing bookshelves

2008-Chocolove Dark Chocolate with Almonds and Sea Salt

2009- boxes of local beef

2010-pizza night

"It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all."

Laura Ingalls Wilder

A Puppy's Life

These little guys have been with us for two weeks and already have stolen our hearts.  And our schedules.  Especially that nice "eight hours of sleep" night that I'm so fond of.   How happy I'll be when they get on my schedule!  Until then, we're trying to make the best of it, 'cause their so darn cute!

Meet Winston, the big brother.  He's a fan of the doggie treats and any leftover food from Parker's food bowl.  He listens well and comes when called.  Again, I think it has to do with those treats he gets when he's a good boy.  He also wants lots of attention and will whine if he can't see you.  He's our high maintenance guy!

This is Parker, our adventurer.  He wants to be outside all the time, chewing on sticks, digging at tree stumps and wandering all over the place.  Yep, we've gotta keep our eye on this one.  He has a tender heart though and pouts when he gets fussed at in the least little way.  He's our "emo" dog.  He loves to crawl up in your lap and fall asleep.  Ahhh...

Exploring the great outdoors is their favorite thing to do, but when it's 20 degrees, the excursions are short.  Training puppies in the summer would've been easier, but we didn't approach this very logically.  That's obvious by the fact that we bought new carpet and furniture in the same month as puppies.  I mean really, who does that?

They are so fun to watch as they romp and play together.  Chewing is their number one past time, so we've provided lots of toys and even a few stuffed ducks,

so they'll be ready when Dad takes them hunting.

That's pretty much a puppy's life.  Eating, chewing, playing, sleeping, going to the bathroom and then starting all over again.  Even though they've completely disrupted our lives, we love them and keep reminding each other, "it's going to be worth it, right?"